Ittle Dew

The first phase goes by fine. The second phase -- if I hit him as he's jumping in, I'm almost certain to get hit by a dumbbell. If I wait for him to throw the two dumbells first, he leaps again with almost zero pause, making it futile to try to hit him that way.

Kind of a lame boss for a game that has been reliant on puzzle solving until now...

I haven't seen any Youtube video where the player doesn't lose massive amount of health or have to try over and over again to beat this guy by the skin of his teeth.

Finally killed him, after going back to the Castle and getting all four hearts. That Fishbunjin fight was way too brute-force-ish, pure luck though, for the second and third phases. Just flail around and hope to get enough hits in before you lose all of your health.

There are two ways to cheese him, actually - one is to wait for a lot of fishbuns to fall from the ceiling and kill them off during the boss's first phase, leaving lots of extra hearts lying around. But this takes a while.

The second is to purposefully run into the fishbuns, taking only a quarter heart damage from them, then hitting the boss during your invulnerability time. Pretty much a guaranteed win if you have 3 or 4 hearts and keep track of your invulnerability time, since the boss can't knock you back.

But yeah, a melee-focused boss fight is a little odd. I've perfected him a few times by tricking him into throwing the dumbbells in directions that are easy to dodge, by staying south of him and walking left/right.

The baby fishbuns only fall during phase 2 I thought? I found it a bit dicey to try to farm hearts that way since I felt like I was just treading water, and getting hit too often to be able to accumulate a stock of hearts on the ground.

But yeah, I discovered that invuln "trick" as well, it just felt a bit cheesy as you say, to exploit the fact that the fishbuns only do 1/4 damage instead of 1/2. It still felt like a race to do as much damage as possible before getting all of my health whittled away, instead of a methodical fight.

Now that it's all over and done with, I'm left with a craving for fish balls...

I didn't find it difficult at all, if you fall low on hearts during phase 2 just stay away from him, which makes avoiding attacks very easy and wait for hearts from fallen enemies to spawn. You don't even need to kill the enemies as they die to the attacks from the boss. Very important: be at full hp when the last phase starts so you can go full yolo at him.

This boss made me ragequit the game and will probably never come back to it. Even Dark Souls is easier.

Wow, you ragequit over THAT? It's not that hard, it only took me around 10 tries. (I had all 4 hearts) You just need to be risky and use your invincibility when you get hit.

I may have overreacted and kind of wanted to make a statement. If the controls and hitboxes were more precise and the attack patterns were more predictable, it would be more enjoyable experience then it is now. That said, I'll probably try again soon.

I may have overreacted and kind of wanted to make a statement. If the controls and hitboxes were more precise and the attack patterns were more predictable, it would be more enjoyable experience then it is now. That said, I'll probably try again soon.

I agree with you, I really didn't like this battle, though I did eventually beat it with four hearts. The main thing that bothers me about the combat in this game is that your sword has a very short reach. In comparison, the 2D Zeldas were much more forgiving - your sword has a longer reach and attacks have a wider arc. You can attack enemies from a reasonable distance and you don't have be positioned right in front of an enemy, you can attack diagonally.

The main thing that bothers me about the combat in this game is that your sword has a very short reach.

Oh, that aspect of the game was absolutely painful. I have to be both basically right on top of the enemy, as well as aligned correctly, in order to hit it, yet one millimeter closer and I'll take damage from touching it. End result is a whole lot of flailing away at empty air or constantly getting knocked back...

Ugh, this is just too annoying right now. Seems to be a lot of luck in whether the Fishbuns will drop hearts or not. Oh and how the dumb bells sometimes bounce and sometimes don't. As DodoCommando said with better controls and hitboxes this might not be so bad but as it's just incredibly frustrating.

I think what bothers me is that all of the sudden my other powers are useless.

I can't use the teleportation block to hide from the ranged attacks, like I could with the witch boss. I can't deflect or even freeze the dumbells with the ice wand, like I can with the axe Jennys. I can't teleport him onto the spikes or even launch him back in the air. Its as though I just got through the most clever puzzles in the game only to be confronted with a button masher boss battle. No clever ways to gain the upper hand, just run around, hope you don't get hit and mash the button when you're in close or invincible.

4 hearts, dont get damaged first phase, dodge in S pattern during second phase while trying to score hits (mind bounces), if hp drops stay away while refilling, once phase 3 starts zerg rush before you die